


Last Dance

by bluejay_unit



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Fluff, Future Fic, Kid Fic, M/M, Slow Dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-28 15:52:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21139244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluejay_unit/pseuds/bluejay_unit
Summary: At Alexis's wedding, David reflects on family old and new.





	Last Dance

David drains the last of his punch and sets the cup down heavily on the table. He looks out across the room. He sees Alexis, in her beaded floor-length mermaid style white dress that she spent weeks choosing, and a matching tiara. She’s slow dancing with Ted, the happy couple blissfully unaware of anything else around them.

Alexis and Ted took a lot longer to get around to getting engaged this time around. David had listened to her vent and scheme about how she could get Ted to propose again, but nobody could blame him for being cautious. Eventually, tired of waiting and wanting to prove she was serious this time, Alexis decided she was going to propose to Ted herself. Ted was over the moon, and the entire Rose family was thrust into wedding planning once more.

David has a funny feeling in his chest, like he’s reaching for the swirl of anxiety that would normally be there, but it’s not. It leaves behind enough of a strange emptiness to leave him feeling out of sorts, though. He supposes he should have learned to let go of his worry about Alexis a long time ago. They’ve been in Schitt’s Creek so many years now, and the opportunities here for her to get kidnapped by drug lords or held hostage on a yacht were admittedly limited. Still, there was a part of that anxiety he had always hung on to.

Not entirely without cause, David knew as long as Alexis was Alexis there was always potential for trouble. But now, even if she was in trouble, he wouldn’t be the first person she needed. At least Ted had no sense for fashion, if she needed to gossip about who was wearing the best and worst things to the latest red carpet event, David would always be her first choice for that.

David scans the rest of the sparsely populated dance floor. It’s really late, and only a handful of couples remain, swaying to a slow song under the fairy lights. His heart seizes in his chest as he catches sight of the scene at the other end of the room.

Patrick is slow dancing with their three-year-old daughter, Alaya, in his arms. He’s facing away from David, and David can sense his exhaustion from here as he steps in a slow circle. The store was meant to be closed today, as they were part way through renovations, but they got a call about a plumbing emergency really early this morning and Patrick decided to go in.

Alaya’s all decked out in a new dress, and a sparkly headband Alexis got her to match the bridesmaids. Her head is tucked up on Patrick’s shoulder, and she’s sucking her thumb. They’ve been trying to wean her off the habit, but it’s an uphill battle.

David crosses the dance floor to get to them. Alaya lights up when she sees him approaching, sitting up in Patrick’s arms, which causes him to glance over his shoulder curiously and give him a sleepy smile.

“Daddy! Daddy, we dancin’!” she calls out to him.

“I see that,” David tells her.

“But we’re doin’ it wrong, Auntie Stebie says we gotta dance like this.” She demonstrates by rocking back and forth and shaking her fists wildly. Patrick laughs, bringing up another hand to keep her steady.

“Well, you can’t listen to everything Auntie Stevie says,” David tells her, “But those are very good dance moves.”

David had never used a “baby talk” tone with Alaya, something Patrick was delighted to find, after some research, would actually be good for her language development. It made him feel better about the few times he just couldn’t help but use it. David did, however, sing to her, but only when he thought no one else could hear. Patrick had discovered this soon after they got her, one night when David forgot to turn down the baby monitor before going to check on her. Patrick had drifted back to sleep to the sound of David’s rambling, sleepy Mariah Carey medley, one song swapping out for another as he forgot the words to verses. But Patrick would never, even under threat of death, reveal that he had heard him.

David joins them in their slow dance, putting one hand on top of Patrick’s where it rest on Alaya’s back, the other wrapped around his waist.

They drift around slowly like that for a few minutes, then the song ends and leads into something slightly faster paced, but they don’t pick up speed at all. David catches Alaya start to bring her thumb up to her face, and he tries to gently pull her hand away before she gets there but she just lets out a frustrated whine and stuffs her thumb in her mouth. He lets it go this time.

Patrick’s eyes slip closed again, and he’s swaying so slowly now they’re basically at a standstill. Alaya starts fussing more, and then she twists forcefully enough that she would’ve tumbled out of Patrick’s arms, but David catches her, resting her on his hip instead.

“Ok, it’s way past _someone’s _bedtime,” David says, pulling away.

“_No_! No bedtime!” Alaya cries.

“Yeah,” Patrick agrees, opening his eyes. “All that sugar probably hasn’t helped, either.” 

“I meant _you_, sleeping beauty,” David replies, patting Patrick’s cheek before slipping a hand in his pocket and taking his car keys.

When they get close enough for Alexis to see them, she turns towards them beaming, and swaying a bit; she’s definitely had at least a few glasses of champagne.

“There’s my little princess!”

David rolls his eyes. “I told you, Ryan Gosling called me that _one time_, and I’m like, seventy percent sure he didn’t mean it as a compliment.”

Alexis ignores him in favor of Alaya, fingers twirling in her little ringlet curls she had done up for the occasion.

“Stevie told us you were sneaking her extra pieces of cake,” Patrick says, as Alaya lets out another shriek. “So thanks for that.”

“Me?” Alexis asked in mock astonishment. “Bend the rules for my favorite flower girl? I would _never!_” She gives an exaggerated wink towards Alaya, who is more preoccupied with trying to wriggle out of David’s arms and swing her tiny feet at his spleen.

“We’re heading home,” David tells her and Ted, who just rejoined them from talking to the DJ.

Alexis makes a face and throws her arms around David and Alaya, and David stiffens in surprise for a moment before bringing his free hand up around her.

Alexis pulls back after a moment, and she has her serious face on. “I know you guys are busy with the store and this little pumpkin,” she says, tapping Alaya’s shoulder, “But you better not go disappearing on me, got it?”

David _just barely_ manages not to scoff. He contemplates reminding her just which one of them, exactly, has a history of _disappearing_, and leaving him anxiously waiting for a call from somebody’s burner phone or a foreign embassy. He takes a deep breath. _Don’t be a stranger_. His ears catch on the words, it’s Ted saying it to Patrick. But David thinks Alexis, in her own way, was saying it too.

“Ok.” He sighs. “Ok,” he says louder, eyeing Patrick, who is nodding along enthusiastically to whatever Ted’s saying, but struggling to keep his eyes open. He takes Patrick’s hand and looks back at Alexis. “We really got to get home or I’ll have _two_ grumpy princesses in the morning.”

“Byeee_eeee_!” Alexis calls.

“Have a good time on your honeymoon!” Patrick wakes up enough to say.

David makes himself turn away, and lead Patrick with him, towards the exit, towards the car, towards home. They have to go single file through the door on the way out; Patrick walks behind him, and drowsily rests his head on David’s back for a moment, kissing his shoulder through his jacket. David has to let go of his hand to put Alaya in her car seat. He buckles her in, watches Patrick double check the straps, and thinks that it’s ok that Alexis doesn’t need him the way she used to. He has new people to take care of now.


End file.
